Review of AeroMexico flight Seoul Mexico City in Economy

Airline AeroMexico
Flight AM91
Class Economy
Seat 18A
Aircraft Boeing 787-8
Flight time 15:20
Take-off 26 Jul 17, 12:25
Arrival at 26 Jul 17, 13:45
AM   #70 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 101 reviews
767 traveller
Published on 1st August 2017
The last month and a half had me doing a course in Singapore and exploring a bit of Asia. Knowing I had to go to Lima after that, my options were either flying straight from Asia or flying back to the UK and then do Peru as a separate trip. I remember waking up a Saturday morning and seeing a great deal from Seoul to Lima with Aeromexico. Out of impulse I ended up booking that, without knowing how I was going to get to Singapore on the first place. I did regreted it at the time, but it ended up working fine.

Before going on to the report, I’ll include a few pictures of my time in Hong Kong. It is a city I loved and found really easy to navigate, natural and comfortable to be in. The blend between Orientalism and the West makes it special.

One morning I got lost on the streets of Kawloon,

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Then took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui. There I visited the Hong Kong history museum, which was very interesting. It shows the history of Hong Kong in a sort of timeline, going from its geographical/geological formation to its political and economic history, with a logical emphasis on the British occupation of Hong Kong and the development of the World trade hub that it is still today, which I find fascinating. It is worth a visit.

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I then walked around the area which is quite nice, had a brief visit to Kawloon park, grabbed coffee at a nice hipster coffee shop that had surprisingly good coffee and watched the sunset by the promenade while waiting for the light show.



The next day I had a walk around Central, in-merging myself in the business environment of HK. I then thought that climbing victoria peak was a good idea. The walk takes you past some posh residential area, where there were lots of dog walkers taking some really cute doggos for a walk. At some point I diverged from the main path and ended up walking through vegetation in the mid range of the mountain. The combination between rural and urban was quite nice and the views were breathtaking, however after almost falling off, I decided I should head back and stick to the main path.



I flew to ICN that evening on Hong Kong express. Had a bit of an issue at immigration where the agent after confusedly looking at my passport and typing something on her computer asked for proof of my flight out of Korea the next morning, despite having to show that when checking in in HKG. First time they ask for proof of my onward itinerary, but no hassle.. I spent the night at Best Western in Ichneon. Nice hotel and really close to the airport, which is a plus.

Back to the report, Next morning I was at ICN before the reglamentary three hours before departure. The designated counters were still being used to check in a Delta flight so I went for a walk and came back about 15 minutes before check in was supposed to be open. There was already a big line at the economy counters so agents started letting people through. Fortunately I was able to use the sky priority lane thanks to a Delta status challenge, matching my BA silver status for Delta Gold. The agent was Korean but spoke good Spanish. I asked her to change my seat since Aeromexico doesn’t let you choose your seat on cheap fares. She just moved a couple of rows foward, but I guess that’s better than nothing. She tagged my bag without mentioning to where and I think she did put a priority tag on my bag. She gave me a lounge invitation after I asked, though I guess that's not necessary since my boarding pass was already showing my status.

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Security was packed but the queue for immigration moved quickly. After not finding the KE lounge on the main terminal, I proceeded to the satellite terminal where my flight was departing from. I found the airport was nice and functional but nowhere near as impressive as other airports in Asia.

I used the KE lounge at the satellite terminal which was okay, but not terribly good. The decoration just seemed a bit dull for me and the food options were a bit basic. The good thing was that the lounge was relatively empty. It did fill up a bit, but was never close to being at full capacity. That was wierd considering they accept priority pass and don’t seem to have any kind of restrinctions for access.

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I grabbed a seat by the window and served myself some breakfast. Having no expectations of what flying Aeromexico in Y was going to be I decided to fill up in the lounge and that turned up being a wise idea.

Food/drink spread.
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Newspapers and a really cool KE 787 model.

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I ended up doing a periscope live showing the lounge and a bit of the terminal. It is in Spanish but I share it here anyway in case anyone is interested.
Seoul airport periscope

Headed to the gate a bit earlier than I had to. Surprisingly no queue had formed for boarding. After about 5 minutes they announced boarding. I missed the call for sky priority so just boarded with the next group.

There was my beautiful 787. I didn’t know how I was going to spend 14 hours in Y but I was good to give it a try.

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Some airline I had never heard before.
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I passed through the business cabin which didn’t look anything spectacular back to cattle class and settled in my seat 18A.

The cabin slowly filled up and the flight ended up being about 95% full in the back of the bus.

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The female FO came on the PA announcing a flight time of 14:10, I panicked ;)

We had a long taxi to the runaway and had a smooth take off. I started exploring the IFE that was better than expected. There were lots of movies with many new releases, tv shows and the most important thing, the moving map of course gave quite a lot of useful info.

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There was wifi onboard. I purchased 100MB which went by on a blink of an eye. That was probably because silly me forgot he had left some music to download on Spotify , but oh well.

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Meanwhile the cabin after takeoff.
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So, I was out of wifi by the time the crew started the lunch service. They distributed drinks and peanuts firs quickly followed by lunch. Choices were beef or pasta, I chose the latter which was decent. It came with a salad and some wierd Green tea pudding. I took a Corona light to go with the meal which went well with it.

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While watching some episodes of Modern Family to pass the time
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Since by that time it was about 2pm in Seoul or 12am in Mexico city, the Smart thing to do was go to sleep and adjust to South American time. I must have slept for about 3-4 hours and woke up when we were over the middle of the Atlantic.

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That’s the point of the flight when you don’t really know what to do. You are quite tired, but can’t sleep, aren’t in a mood for a movie, watch a couple of shows but then give up, you are tired but you are stuck in a window seat in Y and your seat mates are sleeping. At one point I did get up and had a walk around the cabin. Turned by the gallery haunting for some food, but there was only a bottle of water, another of coke and some bags of peanuts that were left from lunch. Simply unacceptable for such a long flight. I picked up a cup of water and a couple of those peanut things and resigndly walked back to my seat.

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The cabin crew on this flight was alright. One one hand they did try to make a good job and at least provide correct attention to passangers, but on the other it was clear that they would rather be anywhere else other than on this flight from Seoul to Mexico City. They only did a couple of water rounds around the cabin and then dissapeared to the gallery.

Four hours before landing the carts started rolling around the cabin. There were two choices for breakfast, one was an omelette and I think I didn’t listen what the other one was.

The Omelette was disgusting, but I was starving so ended up eating most of it. There was also a fruit saland and a bun in the tray which were very much appreciated. To drink I took a peppermint tea due to the lack of normal english breakfast tea bags. Good thing it was Twinings.

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Outside sunrise was starting.
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I then slept and listened to music for the rest of the flight. That way I could arrive at least a bit rested and stay up till South American night time.

I woke up as the cabin crew swiftly started to turn on the cabin lights.
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Descent into MEX was quite bumpy and we had to wait about 20 minutes for our assigned gate to vaccate.


My 787 on stand.
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I had to go through immigration which was a bit packed. The friendly officer gave me a warm welcome “home” which was really nice of him. Now, the agent at ICN didn’t say wether she was tagging my bag all the way to LIM or not, thank god I asked cause i had to retrieve it in MEX and send it back through a conveyor belt for re checked bags.

Well this isa ll from me for now. I apologize for the lack of pictures and the “briefness” of this report, but by the time of the flight all the emotion faded away. Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading!

Stay turned for the next part covring my flight from Mexico city to Lima in a lovely 738 and a visit to the AM lounge in Mexico city.
See more

Verdict

AeroMexico

5.9/10
Cabin6.5
Cabin crew5.0
Entertainment/wifi7.5
Meal/catering4.5

Korean Air Prestige Class Lounge - - 1

6.5/10
Comfort6.5
Meal/catering6.5
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Services6.0

Seoul - ICN

7.5/10
Efficiency7.0
Access7.5
Services8.0
Cleanliness7.5

Mexico City - MEX

6.8/10
Efficiency7.0
Access6.5
Services6.5
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

Aeromexico proved to be one of those airlines that would take you from A to B, but that's it. Cabin crew was ok and catering left a lot to be desired. While their Business class cabin is certainly subpar with what the rest of the world is offering, economy is pretty much standard (tight seat pitch and configuration these days). I would have expected a third meal service or at least some consistent snack offerings in the gallery due to the long length of the flight. Will I fly Aeromexico again? if they are considerably cheaper than everyone else, then they serve their purpose.

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1 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 407422 by
    Chibcha SILVER 540 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR, whilst it seems AM does a mediocre job even in what one would think is their "legacy" routes, it is cool to see the only latin airline flying to Asia!

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